Once, when the Chofetz Chaim was asked a very serious
question which required a swift response, he said: "I can't
answer it immediately, but have to delve into the
sugya and clarify the halacha in depth. There is one
man though, who is familiar with every aspect of the Shas,
R' Sholom Mordechai Hacohen Schwadron. Only he is capable
of answering such a question immediately."

Zlotchov was a typical chassidic town. Its residents,
yereim and shleimim, regarded earning a
livelihood as a secondary pursuit and Torah as their main
one. From the early hours of the afternoon until late at
night, the town's kloiz teemed with both young and
old, who toiled over their Torah studies.

One of the most outstanding Zlotchovers was a man named R'
Moshe Hacohen Schwadron, who had come to Zlotchov from his
birthplace, Barzhen. R' Moshe's father was a silversmith by
trade but, as the gedolei chassidus of his time
testified, he was like one of the lamed vov
tzaddikim.

Like his father, R' Moshe was also a merchant who made Torah
pursuit his primary occupation and his trade a secondary one.
His honesty and outstanding righteousness were well known.

It is related that R' Moshe once called one of his business
contacts to a din Torah. When R' Moshe was asked to
state his claim, he replied that he was actually the claimant
and the merchant the plaintiff. When asked to explain, R'
Moshe said, "This merchant has been purchasing a certain
amount of alcohol from me for years. But recently, when I
measured the container he always brings me to fill, I
realized that it contains less than the original amount we
agreed on. This means that for a long period of time, the
merchant has been paying me more than I deserve. I have come
to the beis din today, to ask the Rov how much I owe
the merchant."

R' Moshe's son, R' Sholom Mordechai, was born in 5595 (1835).
When Sholom Mordechai was very small his father, who was very
concerned about his son's chinuch, hired a great
talmid chochom to teach him. When Sholom was only
three, he displayed a tremendous will to learn and to
understand, and would study with his rebbe for many hours.

When he was five, he had already studied Shulchan Oruch,
Orach Chaim and Yoreh Deah. This was discovered
quite incidentally by one of the men who was learning in the
kloiz, who angrily told him not to play with the
copies of the Shulchan Oruch because they were very
rare. Innocently, Sholom Mordechai replied that he wasn't
playing with them, but studying. The man, who thought that
the child was just trying to clear himself of the blame,
suggested that Sholom Mordechai be tested on what he had
learned. And in that way, the five-year-old's amazing mastery
of these two parts of the Shulchan Oruch became
known.

Due to his great diligence, his fame as a wonderchild became
known even to the maskilim, who made every effort to
ensnare their fellow Jews, especially younger people who were
destined for greatness. One of them, who appeared to be truly
G-d-fearing, persuaded the child that it was worthwhile to
study Hebrew grammar. "This will help you understand the fine
points of Rashi on the Chumash, and Chazal on the
Tanach," he said. When the maskil saw that the
child was nearly convinced, he brought him a Hebrew grammar
book, warning him not to tell his father who belonged to a
chassidic circle that disapproved of dikduk
studies.

Sholom Mordechai, who was influenced by the smooth talk of
the maskil took the book and hid it in his attic. On
the very same erev Shabbos in which he received the
book, he leafed through it.

On the following Sunday, which was a rosh chodesh,
Sholom Mordechai joined his father on a visit to the
tzaddik, R' Meir of Premishlan. Every rosh
chodesh, R' Moshe would visit that tzaddik and
give him his ma'aser money. When they went in, R' Meir
sat in a darkened room on the floor, dressed in sackcloth,
and covered by earth. (R' Meir had taken this hanhogoh
upon himself until the release of R' Yisroel of Ruzhin from
prison in Russia.)

R' Moshe asked R' Meir to bless the child who so yearned to
study Torah. But a terrible shriek of pain burst from R'
Meir's throat the moment he placed his hand on the child'
head: "My son, al teilech bederech itom! Keep your
feet away from their path. Don't listen to anyone except for
your father. I know that he is an upright Jew."

R' Meir repeated this a number of times. When the two left,
R' Moshe asked his son if he understood what R' Meir had
meant, and then the child told him about the incident with
the dikduk book. When they reached home the book was,
of course, immediately destroyed.

The older Sholom Mordechai grew, the greater became his
tremendous hasmodoh. His knowledge and expertise in
the Shas and the poskim were amazing. Even
before he was bar mitzvah, he managed to complete the entire
Shas a number of times.

After his bar mitzvah, he would study for sixteen hours a
day. During the first eight hours of the day, he would study
four pages of gemora with poskim in depth, with
all of the rishonim. During the other eight hours, he
would study sixteen pages in bekius.

During those years, he began to visit the Admor Sar Shalom,
the first Admor of the Belz dynasty. The Admor became very
close with him, and predicted for him a glorious future in
Torah.

When Sholom Mordechai was fifteen, he married the daughter of
one of the neggidim of the town of Biklaman. During
the wedding feast, R' Sholom suggested that the guests pose
their hardest questions in all of the sugyos of the
Shas to him. On this occasion, R' Sholom displayed his
tremendous grasp by explaining every aspect of the
sugyos presented to him.

After his marriage, R' Sholom Mordechai remained in his
father-in-law's home in Biklaman. During those years, his
hasmodoh grew even greater, and he would study Torah
round the clock, barely taking a respite for sleep.

He resorted to an original way to overcome his natural
tiredness, and would tie his payos to the ceiling with
a string. Whenever his head drooped, his payos would
be tugged, and his eyes would snap open.

During that period, every time he performed a mitzvah or even
a daily activity, he would review the related halachos. Thus
when he did nettilas yodayim or made a hamotzi,
he would review all of the pertinent laws, and during the
meal itself, would review the laws of bircas hamozone.
On Shabbosim, he would study hilchos Shabbos and
eruvin, and on every Yom Tov, the laws of the
particular day. From rosh chodesh Elul until Succos,
he would seclude himself for the entire day in the beis
medrash, growing in his hasmodoh and
prishus. During Tishrei, he would remain wrapped in
tefillin and tallis the entire day. Every day
in Tishrei, before dawn, he would purify his soul with very
difficult ablutions, such as rolling in the snow or immersing
in the icy waters of the nearby river.

Despite his adherence to all of these practices, he was still
very careful not to waste a moment of his Torah study time,
and, while purging himself, would review his studies by
heart.

After a number of years, his father-in-law died, and R'
Sholom Mordechai returned to his hometown of Zlotchov. He
earned his livelihood from a store which was managed mainly
by his wife. For only a very few hours during the day, R'
Sholom was forced to sit in his store. But even then, he
would spend his time reviewing his gemora. Later on,
he told his son, R' Tzvi Hacohen that during the three years
in which he spent a few brief hours in the store, he had
managed to complete all four parts of the Shulchan
Oruch, as well the Tur and Beis Yosef and
their commentaries, four times.

R' Sholom Mordechai was very beloved by the geonim of
his time, especially R' Yosef Shaul Natanson, author of
Shoel uMeishiv, and R' Shlomo Kluger, who greatly
esteemed him. When R' Sholom was still young, these
geonim sent him their chiddushim, for his
opinion.

When R' Sholom was forced to travel to Levov for medical
advice regarding his wife's health, he stayed at the home of
the Shoel uMeishiv. R' Yosef Shaul always asked R' Sholom
Mordechai's wife to make a special effort not to charge her
brilliant husband, who was destined for greatness, with the
burden of earning a livelihood. He even said: "R' Sholom
Mordechai is the only one who can fill my shoes after I
die."

R' Shlomo Kluger, who never gave anyone semichoh,
behaved out of character regarding R' Sholom Mordechai, and
wrote him: "For reasons known only to me, I don't give anyone
semichoh. But rom ma'alaso doesn't need my
semichoh, and can issue halachic rulings like any of
the famous gedolim."

Entering the Rabbonus

R' Sholom Mordechai fled all rabbinic positions. Many Polish
and Galician towns asked him to preside as their rav and
av beis din. But he refused their offers, and
continued to earn his livelihood from the fruit of his
hands.

However, in the wake of the Austro-German war in the years
5626-7 (1866-7), he lost all of his money and reached a state
of abject poverty. Having no choice, he was forced to accept
the offer of the heads of Patick, a city near Botchasch, to
serve as their rav and av beis din.

R' Shlomo presided over all the affairs of the city with a
firm hand, and all obeyed all of his rulings and decisions.
He was praised and respected by all. Even the gentiles in the
region respected the rav and judge of the area, and would ask
him to solve all of their complicated cases.

His Reputation Spreads

In time, his great spiritual stature and kedushoh
became well known. During that period, the right to export
meat was acquired from the regional governor. The Jews, who
wanted to control the kashrus of the shechitoh, always
took care to secure this right, even at great cost. This
right also brought in notable profits for the community and
served as the main source of the Rov's salary. The gentiles
also had to pay significant amounts so that the Jews could
export only slaughtered meat.

One day, the gentiles of the area joined forces and bought
the right to slaughter. The Jews didn't want to pay a fee to
the gentiles and decided not to shecht at all in that
region, but to import slaughtered meat from nearby Jewish
towns. The regional shochet would go to the nearby
towns every day in order to supervise the kashrus of
the shechitoh. He was sent by the rov of the
community, R' Sholom Mordechai. When the gentiles realized
what the Jews were doing, they became enraged, and decided to
kill the shochet and his assistants.

And so, one morning at dawn, the non-Jews converged on the
Jewish quarter. The Jews of the city were seized with terror,
and they locked themselves in their homes, while gentiles
ransacked the area and destroyed whatever they saw. When R'
Shlomo Mordechai learned that the gentiles had broken into
the home of the shochet, and that he was inches away
from death, he put on his coat and hat and set out to try to
save him. He ignored the pleas of his wife who feared for his
life, and headed for the nearby home of the
shochet.

The moment the marauders saw the saintly figure of the
Maharsham, they stood still. The head of the band rushed over
to him, and fell at the Maharsham's feet, pleading for his
life and the lives of his henchmen, who had fled. Indeed, the
verse, "And all of the nations of the earth saw that G-d's
Name is called upon you and they will fear you," was
fulfilled through him.

Why Did He Go to the Admor of Chortkov?

In his capacity as rov of the city of Patick, R' Sholom felt
obligated to visit the Admor of Chortkov, to whom the city
actually belonged, he having inherited it from his father R'
Yisroel of Ruzhin.

R' Yisroel was forced to buy the title to this region when he
fled to Austria from his prison in Czarist Russia. The
Russian Czar demanded that R' Yisroel be turned over to him.
However, when they found out that, according to Austrian law,
one who owns any region of the Austrian kingdom cannot be
extradited to another land, R' Yisroel's chassidim and
admirers collected the necessary funds and bought him the
region of the Galician city of Patick, which was part of the
Austro-Hungarian kingdom.

The Admor of Chortkov, who recognized the greatness of the
Maharsham, determined that he would be the only posek
of his chassidim, which was one of the largest groups
in Galicia.

For five years R' Sholom Mordechai presided as the rov of
Patick. Afterwards, he yielded to the request of leaders of
Ziolitz that he officiate in their city. For seven years, R'
Sholom Mordechai presided as rov of Ziolitz, and in that
capacity he also revealed his greatness in Torah.

One erev Shavuos, R' Sholom Mordechai asked the commander of
a troop of soldiers in the area to release the Jewish
soldiers under his command to spend the holiday with the
Jewish community. The commander sternly refused, claiming
that on Shavuos an important operation was supposed to take
place in which all of the soldiers had to participate. The
Maharsham pleaded with the troop's commander to postpone the
operation until after the holiday. However the commander
staunchly refused. The operation had to take place on
time! When the Maharsham saw that the commander was
stubborn, he told him that he would one day see that there is
a G-d in the world.

This entire event took place at the beginning of the summer,
and there seemed no reason to assume that the mild weather
would change. Preparations for the important operation were
at their height. All of the top brass in the army came to
observe it firsthand. Early on Shavuos, before morning, all
of the soldiers assembled in order to set out on the
operation. But before they had even begun to march, a raging
storm broke out and heavy rain began to pour.

The commander stubbornly insisted on going to the site of the
operation nonetheless. However, the wind grew so strong that
a number of soldiers actually flew in the air. Having no
choice, he cancelled the operation. The commander, who
understood that Hashem had caused all this, told his men that
the storm was the result of his refusal of the request of the
saintly Jew. Immediately, all of the Jewish soldiers were
released, and the top officers of the Polish army came to see
the pious Jew, and to apologize to him for what had
occurred.

The Rov of Barzhen

The Maharsham served for thirty years as the rav of Barzhen.
The gaon R' Yitzchok Shmelkish, author of Beis
Yitzchok, who preceded him, instructed his constituents
to appoint the Maharsham as his successor. The Maharsham
taught many students in the yeshiva which he established in
Barzhen. However, even though he taught Torah with much
mesirus nefesh and was totally devoted to his
students, this didn't distract him from administering the
city with a firm hand, as he strengthened every aspect of
Torah observance.

He made many efforts to inspect the various shochtim
in the city, and by various strategies always succeeded
in disclosing any shochet or butcher who made light of
kashrus.

His public service was outstanding and he gave strict orders
to his family to inform him whenever someone came to ask him
a question, and even if he was sleeping they were to awaken
him immediately.

The source for this behavior is in Semochos Chapter
Eight, which records a conversation between two of the Ten
Holy Martyrs, Rabban Shimon Ben Gamliel and Rabbi Yishmoel.
"I weep that we are killed just like murderers and Shabbos
desecraters," said Rabban Shimon Ben Gamliel. R' Yishmoel
replied: "Perhaps you once fell asleep during a meal, and a
woman came to ask a question about her taharoh and an
aide said that you were asleep. Of this the Torah says, `When
you are asked a question, answer [it not,] I shall kill you
with the sword.' "

He was once asked a very serious question on the Seder
night, and he stopped the Seder in order to study
the question. After examining it for a long time, he still
wasn't satisfied with his findings, and called in another
dayan. Both of them sat and discussed the question
until they deduced the halacha. Only then did he return to
conduct the Seder.

The Source of His Greatness

The brilliance of the Maharsham stemmed not from his natural
talents — which were considerable — but primarily
from his devotion to Torah whose depth cannot be fathomed.
His toil and endless hasmodoh raised him to the level
on which he and the Torah were one. His opinion was daas
Torah, and when he spoke it was as if the Torah itself
were speaking.

The Maharsham derived everything from the Torah. Every
problem found its solution in explicit sources. Whenever
people asked him for advice, even in mundane matters which
had no halachic aspects, R' Sholom Mordechai would open the
Tanach which was always by his side and find the
correct solution. He once said that this power did not stem
from the goral, but from a special power given him
from Above.

His Torah was engraved on his heart. Every secret in the
never-ending sea of Torah was known to him. "People think,"
he would say with a smile, "that I eat balsam [a type of food
which, according to the gemora helps one acquire a
phenomenal memory]. However, the truth is that I fulfilled
the words of our sages: `Review your gemora, and don't
rely on balsam.' "

Many examples demonstrate that his remarkable mastery of the
entire Torah was the result of his constant review of his
studies.

Once a poritz asked one of the Jews in his region to
loan him a large sum of money. The Jew, who feared that the
poritz would not return the money and did not want to
become involved in lawsuits with the poritz, asked
another Jew to loan the poritz the money. However the
other Jew felt the same way, and didn't want to loan the
money either. In his attempts to persuade him, the first Jew
promised the second one that he would be a guarantor for the
loan, and as a result the second Jew agreed.

The poritz, of course, didn't return the loan. When
the lender saw this, he sued the guarantor. But the guarantor
said that he hadn't agreed to be an operative guarantor
(oreiv kablan) to whom the lender could come for first
recourse, but merely a passive one and that the lender should
first sue the poritz. Only if the poritz
refused to pay could the lender turn to the guarantor.

The lender, on the other hand, claimed that he had agreed to
loan the money to the poritz only on the condition
that his friend would pay the money in the event that the
poritz didn't return it.

The hearing focused on the question of whether the first Jew
was still an active guarantor even though he had not
specified this beforehand. The Maharsham quickly came up with
the following response: The gemora Pesochim 118 brings
an argument which took place between the sea's ministering
angel and Hashem. At the time when the waters of the Red Sea
engulfed the Egyptians, the Children of Israel said, "Just as
we are rising from one side, the Egyptians are rising from
the other side." Hashem wanted the angel of sea to give up
the dead Egyptians but he was unwilling to give up this fish
food. HaKodosh Boruch Hu said that he would pay him
back later and, "Kishon River will be My guarantor."
Immediately the sea discharged the Egyptians to the shore,
and Israel came and saw them, as it is written: "And Israel
saw Egypt dead on the seashore."

The Maharsha asks: What did the ministering angel of the sea
gain by the guarantee of the Kishon River? Is there such a
thing as a slave who sues his master, as the gemora
itself notes? He then answers: Because it is known that there
is no such thing as a slave who sues his master, the passive
guarantor becomes an active one."

The Maharsham continued: "The lender agreed to the terms only
because the guarantor had promised to keep his pledge, and it
is known that is impossible to sue the poritz in
court. Therefore, even if he didn't explicitly state that he
is an active guarantor, he become one."

When the Ridbaz heard the Maharsham's psak, he said:
"We also know gemora and poskim, but only the
Maharsham, who is unique in his time, could find this source
for such a chiddush."

Another episode illustrates the brilliance of the Maharsham's
rulings. A wealthy Jew who had hired a group of agricultural
workers once came to the field to see their work firsthand.
He arrived when the workers had just gotten up, and found
them brushing their teeth with toothbrushes and toothpaste, a
privilege only the very rich enjoyed during those times.

On the spot, the rich man fired his workers, saying that an
academic career and not agricultural work suited them. But
the workers did not go quietly, and claimed that it was
forbidden to fire them before he had proven that their work
was worse than that of the other farm laborers in the region.
The rich man insisted that such pampered men weren't suited
for agricultural work, and that the entire contract was in
error.

The workers called the employer to a din Torah, which
shuttled from beis din to beis din with no
solution in sight. In the end, it was decided to call a
massive meeting of rabbonim, where the matter would be
discussed. The Maharsham was asked to head the meeting.

After all of the sides had presented their claims, the
Maharsham said that he was surprised that none of the
dayonim had yet found a solution to the problem
— since a solution appears explicitly in the gemora.
The brows of the other rabbonim at the meeting furrowed,
and they strained their minds to find the gemora to
which the Maharsham was referring. After a while, one of the
dayonim rose and began to recite all of the sugyos
in Shas which might pertain to this problem. When
he finished, he unequivocally concluded that there is no such
gemora.

The Maharsham though, insisted that a gemora was found
in maseches Shabbos. When the other sages couldn't
find any such text, the Maharsham told them that it was
located in the chapter of Bameh beheimoh. But even
this hint did not help. The Maharsham told them: "The
gemora in Shabbos 54 says: `What is the "land
of Cabul" referred to in Melochim I 9?' Rav Huna said:
`It contained inhabitants who were tied up
(mechubolim) with silver and gold.' Rava said to him:
`If so, why it is written, "and they pleased him not"
(posuk 13)? Because they were tied up with silver and
gold, they pleased him not?' [That is, what is wrong if they
are wealthy?] He replied, `Being wealthy and used to easy
living, they could do no work.' And so, because the brushing
of teeth is a sign that the workers are pampered, the owner
of the field is correct."

When the Maharam of Lublin would charge his students to reach
a high level of perfection in Torah knowledge, he would cite
an amazing example of the Maharsham's behavior, noting that
the Maharsham's phenomenal memory stemmed from his
hasmodoh and his chazoroh. [The Maharam knew
the Maharsham very well in Barzhen, and the Maharsham's
second wife was the Maharam's grandmother.]

He relates: Toward the end of the Maharsham's life, while he
was on his sickbed and in a very weak state, a number of
prominent rabbonim came to visit him.

As they were waiting to enter, a question arose regarding the
priestly gifts. In Yoreh Deah, siman 31, it says that
it is customary to give them only in Eretz Yisroel. It
was asked if it is considered pretentious (mechzei
keyuharo) to give such gifts outside of Eretz Yisroel.
They discussed all sides of the matter and, in their
fervor, raised their voices.

The Maharsham, who heard the voices, asked the Maharam what
the guests were discussing. When the Maharam told him what
the debate was about, the Maharsham immediately replied that
the Darkei Moshe, in the section on hilchos
mezuzoh (286) explicitly wrote that there is no
yuharo in this case.

The Maharam was amazed by the swiftness of the reply, and
especially by the fact that the location of the Darkei
Moshe was in hilchos mezuza where one would not
expect a relevant passage. He feared that, due to his
weakness, the Maharsham had made a mistake.

The Maharsham sensed this and asked the Maharam to bring him
the Tur. He opened it to the abovementioned place, and
showed him the explicit reply in Darkei Moshe, in the
name of the Divrei Mordechai in the name of Maharam.
The Maharam of Lublin was astounded by the Maharsham's
memory.

At that point, the Maharsham told him: "Why are you so amazed
by the siyata deShmaya that I have in recalling
things? Look at the end of the volume. When the Maharam
looked at the end of the volume, he saw this inscription in
the Maharsham's handwriting: "Be'ezras Hashem on [such
and such a day], I completed Tur and Shulchan
Oruch, one hundred and one times."